Slow start dooms St. Vincent boys basketball team against Valle

BISMARCK, Mo. -- A slow start and failure to regroup ended the St. Vincent boys basketball team's chances of extending its season Tuesday night.

The seventh-seeded Indians fell behind by 15 points to second-seeded Valle Catholic in the first quarter before suffering a 71-37 loss in a Class 2 District 3 quarterfinal at Bismarck High School.

"You practice all year, you play all year, then you get to districts where this is supposed to be the fun time of year when you basically should be prepared for anything anybody throws at you. I felt like we just came out a little in slow motion, a little sluggish and not ready to play," St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy said. "Maybe that was because of what Valle did to us early, but I really don't know why we played the way we did. We're young yet, but that's no excuse. We have to be ready to play and have to be ready for anything."

St. Vincent (5-18) turned the ball over on its first three possessions and watched the Warriors go on a 7-0 run with 4 minutes, 28 seconds left in the first.

"Our game plan was to try to stop the two Bosler's, Andrew and Connor, and [Daniel] Bergtholdt because they're their three leading scorers," Valleroy said. "The first three minutes I thought we did that, but of course when you turn the ball over and they go down and score easy layups, it kind of gets out of hand real quick and you don't realize the good things we did defensively to start the game."

The trio of Warriors combined to score Valle's first seven points before the Indians scored their first point of the game on a free throw from Riley Riehn.

Valle ended the opening period on an 11-2 run and led 18-3.

"They came out and put it to us early. They really set the tone, which I kind of knew they were going to do, and we didn't handle it very well at the beginning," Valleroy said. "They were hitting from everywhere, and they're that good of a team. Eventually we started to play a little better, but you can't wait until that happens, especially in districts, because when you do, you look up and there's no time left."

St. Vincent ended the night with 19 turnovers and shot 29 percent (13 of 42) from the field.

Valleroy said he does expect a bright future for his young squad, which is maturing quickly. The Indians only will lose one senior to graduation and return an abundance of experienced underclassmen.

"We hate to see him go, but we've got everybody coming back except for Kaleb [Schnurbusch]," Valleroy said. "We've got some kids that have had some experience now. Overall, I think about six that have started or played some for us on varsity. Trevor Lieble, Jordan Bucheit and Jordan Rellergert have all started some for us now. Joe Whistler was our first guy off the bench as a junior this year, and there are some other freshman and sophomores we've had up here. So those guys have got all the experience in the world. The word youth has got to be done now. *...We've got to grow up as basketball players. I know that's tough to explain, but we've got to get mentally tough."

St. Vincent 3 19 8 7 -- 37

Valle Catholic 18 25 14 14 -- 71

ST. VINCENT (37) -- Luke Wibbenmeyer 14, Trevor Leible 11, Joe Whistler 3, Jordan Bucheit 3, Riley Riehn 3, Jordan Rellergert 2. FG 13, FT 10-13, F 11 (3-pointers: Bucheit 1, Fouled out: none.)

VALLE CATHOLIC (7l) -- Connor Basler 23, Daniel Bergtholdt 13, Andrew Basler 11, Nicholas Oberle 10, Tyler Shuh 8, Tyler Uding 3, Coleman Keely 2, Colin Okenfuss 1. FG 29, FT 7-10, F 16 (3-pointers: Basler 3, Shuh 2, Bergtholdt 1, Fouled out: none.)